Throwing Down is Better Than Up

Let's get the ball rolling with some Coach G comments:

ChrisG

"Sounds like you are throwing down pretty hard. Good stuff. Questions: How long is your rest interval? What gearing for work/rest? You mentioned 92 rpm as slightly high- is 90 rpm your target cadence? Keep eating that fruit."

I am throwing down very hard especially compared to what I've done in the past. I commented to Walter, I think I'm finally understanding what they mean when they say, "You have to train in order to be able to train." I thought I understood last year but now I know I didn't. Having done some races undoubtedly helped that.

My rest interval is 4 minutes because I want to pare a few minutes off the workout to make sure I catch the train in time. In theory the workout calls for 5 minute rests. Now that I have the 4:30 am groove a little down I will likely go back to 5 next week.

The trainer bike is a mountain bike so my gearing is mountain specific. But the trainer also has resistance, so it basically comes down to this (roughly):

Work: big ring front, small ring rear, less 1. Resistance at 3. Say 44x14 at R3.
Rest: big ring front, small ring rear, less 2. Resistance at 1. Say 44x15 at R1.

I am targeting cadence this offseason more because I now see the value of really setting yourself into a certain cadence. I think this has helped me in those tempo rides because now my legs want to do 90. I've also seen that because I've been trying to keep the cadence higher I tend to slowly creep towards 100 and not realize it. Now I need to spend more time in the woods to see how well that all translates.

I was surprised at the 92 because it was the 3rd interval and with these I tend to hover in the 87-90 realm. So when I saw 92-94 with a few minutes to go I was happy with that. The last 2 minutes were tough so maybe I was really suffering from cadence creep at that point and paying for the higher power output.

Here's an odd thing. I felt really good all day Tuesday. Monday I was starting to get dog tired by the middle of the day but Tuesday I never hit the energy lull that usually comes on the last day of the block. And considering I was tired Monday, I expected it to be bad Tuesday. I started to fade a hair around 3:00 but some Brazil nuts and a pear helped a bit.

This morning marks my return to pre-vacation weight. That's a big milestone this early in the game. I've gone a bit militant with my eating habits but the reality is that yesterday I ate the following foods (among other things): egg, ham, avocado, meatballs, Brazil nuts, almonds, cashews, peanut butter, ice cream, almond butter, potato pancake, and a chicken thigh with skin.
My point is two-fold. Eating doesn't have to be boring and tasteless. There are plenty of healthy foods that are good for you. But moderation is huge. One egg is 75 calories. A small slice of ham is 50. The chicken thigh is small, I eat 1-2 almonds at a time, and so on. Mingled in there I also had a mango, pear, tangerine, apple, asparagus, broccoli, and carrots. Mix it all up and it's not so bad.

Saw 185 today. Hopefully I can keep this up and make a full court press on the 170s by the end of February. 181 is the new short-term goal because I haven't been there since grade school.